Comment on "Are tablets the future in class?" (China Daily, Nov 1)

Most children in the United Kingdom have access to computers installed in their classrooms. Since the computers are strictly for education purposes, they do not contain any games.

Almost all students in my university in China have cellphones and not all of them can be monitored to see whether they are playing games or watching movies instead of using them to access study materials or information.

Books remain the greatest source of knowledge. But we have to move with the times. If tablets are developed without games or movies and made available to students for use in class, perhaps the use of mobile phones in class can be banned.

For teaching English and other languages, I think computers are excellent, because many of the software used for writing highlight wrongly spelt words or incorrectly structured sentences. This helps children to learn a language faster and more easily. In this sense, a computer is better than the traditional blackboard.

But since the use of computers has to be controlled, a blend of the computer and the blackboard would be the best way to teach children.

PIMPERNEL2, from China Daily website